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EEV. THEOBALD MATHEW. 



REMARKS 



,• OF 

HON. tfsyFOOTE, OF 



IN THE SENATE, DECEMBER 10, 1849, 



On the Piesoluiion to permit the Rev. Theobald IMathew to sit within the Bar 
-) j/^ of the Senate. 



Mr. FOOTE said: Mr. President, it is with no 
iittle reluctance that I take part in the debate navv 
in progress. Delicate topics have been introduced, 
(and these topics have to some extent been dis- 
cussed also,) which I had hoped would not have 
been intruded upon our notice thus early. The 
real question before the Senate seems to me to be, 
whether special honor shall be done by us to a dis- 
tinguished championof the cause of temperance, on 
account of the eminent service which he has ren- 
dered to mankind by his activity and zeal in sup- 
pressing one of the most hideous evils which has 
ever made its appearance in the world. No one 
who knows the history of Father Mathew as the 
charripion of temperance, can doubt that he de- 
serves the respect and sympathy of all who feel 
interested in preserving the dignity and happi- 
ne.'is of man as a moral being. In this charac- 
ter I have long adm.ired him -most profoundly 
and sympathized with him most deeply. On 
account of his merits as a successful advocate 
of temperance in two hemispheres, I feel strong- 
ly inclined to support the resolution which has 
been oflered for according him a seat on the 
floor of tiie Senate; and so I shall certainly vote, 
unless it be shown that there is something in 
the resolution offered by the Senator from Wis- 
consin violative of the rules of this body, or re- 
Fugnant to precedents heretofore held in respect, 
ndeed, I believe that the almost unanimous vote 
of the Senate would have been given in the sup- 
port of this resolution but for the extraordinary 
speech delivered by the honorable Senator from 
New York, [Mr. Seward,] a few moments since. 
It seems that this gentleman feels authorized to 
Say that he recognizes Father Mathew as an anti- 
slavery propagandist, and on this account, chiefly, 
does he base his support of the resolution. I can- 
not help hoping that he has done gross injustice to 
the distinguished native of the Em.erald Isle alluded 
to-, in recognizing him, as he has explicitly done, 
as a mere abolition incendiary. lam inclined to 
think, and indeeed I confidently believe, that the 
distinguished Senatorfrom Kentucky, [Mr. Clay,] 
and the equally distinguished Senatorfrom Michi- 
gan, [Mr. Cass,] understand the attitude of Father 
Mathew with regard to slavery in this country far 
better than the Senator from New York, who has 
showered upon him such degrading commenda- 
tions, if the honorable Senators from Michigan 
and Kentucky have not been egregiously misin- 



formed in regard to the present opinions and plans 
of the venerable apostle of temperance now in our 
midst, he would be one of the last men in the world 
either to intermeddle, himself, with any portion of 
the domestic institutions of a republic of which he 
is a temporary guest, or to instigate the vicious 
intermeddling of others, or to sanction directly or 
indirectly the foul incendiarism which has at last 
placed in such serious jeopardy the noblest civic 
^ institutions which the wisdom of man has ever yet 
I succeeded in establishing upon earth. 
I Sir, I have been so long fighting under the noble 
non-intervention flag, which may be seen at the 
masthead of that well-rigged vessel of State,of which 
the honorable Senator from Michigan [Mr. Cass] 
has been recogn ized as the faithful and fearless pilot, 
that I am not afraid to attend upon him still during 
the short voyage for which it would seem he has 
concluded to embark. Could I suppose it possible 
that the rumors, which have readied us relative to 
the present opinions of Father Mathew upon 
the question of slavery were true, or that he is 
capable of abetting in the least degree, either by 
word or deed, the schemes of unprincipled fac- 
tionists, whose sentiments and policy are so fiercely 
and efficiently advocated upon this floor, instead 
of uniting in a proceeding intended to do him 
special honor, I should not hesitate to refuse him 
even the kind and courteous hospitalities which 
he everywhere so modestly and gracefully re- 
ceives, as he journeys through the Republic. I 
regret to learn, that, when addressed by citizens 
of Alabama and Georgia, as to his views upon the 
question of slavery, he either declined responding, 
or responded by letters withheld from publication 
at his own request. I think that in this tran.sac- 
tion he committed a great mistake, and one which 
will greatly impair his efficiency as a champion of 
temperance. But, until I receive conclusive evi- 
dence to the contrary, I must believe that he still 
adheres to the resolution v/hich he assumed and 
made public shortly after his arrival in this coun- 
try, not to connect himself at all with any of the 
domestic controversies in progress on this side of 
the Atlantic. I well recollect the scene, which 
occurred somewhere in the State of Massachu- 
setts, between certain fierce abolition agitators 
and Father Mathew, in which these wicked in- 
cendiaries made a most indecent and ungentle- 
manly attempt to inveigle this venerable personage 
in their nefarious schemes, and to wield the influ- 



fG 



ence of his name and charocter against the insti- 
tutions of the South; and I have not forgotten the 
dignified and severe rebuke vi.'hich he administered 
to these infatuated factionists, nor the scurrilous 
denunciations which they showered down upon 
him so plenteously afterwards. These facts are 
too recent not to be recollected. I do not wish to 
be understood as at all censuring the action of the 
honorable Senator from Alabama, [Mr. Clemens,] 
who has on this occasion gratified his friends so 
highly, by one of the most brilliant parliamentary 
debuts that 1' have ever witnessed. His conduct 
evinces only that decent and proper respect for 
public sentiment in his own noble State, specially 
inflamed by the circumstances stated by him, 
whicli a previous knowledge of his character and 
history would have induced me to anticipate from 
him upon an occasion like the present. Nor did 
ray gallant colleagu.e, [Mr. Davis,] in the eloquent 
harangue which he has just delivered in our liear- 
ing, utter one sentiment to which I do not heartily 
respond. Tl>e rebuke which he administered to 
the honorable Senator from New York, [Mr. 
Seward,] and his allies in and out of this hall, 
was richly deserved, as all must have felt who 
heard it, save, perhaps, tlie unhappy subjects 
themselves. And now, sir, let me turn my atten- 
tion particularly, for a moment or two, to the Sen- 
ator from the Empire State, who has so unauthor- 
izedly advocated the resolution of the honorable 
Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Walker,] on the 
ground that Father Mathcw is an avowed aboli- 
tionist in opinion, and is on that account worthy to 
receive signal honor at the hands of an American 
Senate. Why, sir, the honorable Senator must 
have forgotten where he was; he must have be- 
come suddenly oblivious of his official oath, which 
binds him to support the Constitution of the 
United States, whose sacred provisions guaranty 
perpetual protection to slavery against all foes, 
either foreign or domestic; without which protec- 
tion, thus guarantied, the Constitution itself v.ould 
never have become part of the supreme law of 
the land, or the Union of these States have been 
established upon foundations which all true pa- 
triots hope may prove perpetual. 

Sir, what object did the honorable Senator from 
New York purpose to attain by this extraordinary 
display of the morning? Is it his object mer«ly to 
monopolize the sympathies of the whole Irish and 
Catholic population of the Republic; and, by ma- 
king this resolution odious to all who respect the 
vital principles wliich are embodied in our political 
compact, and driving from its support all but the 
avowed anti-slavery members of this body, thus 
to establish exclusive claims to the future political 
support of this numerous and respectable class of 
American voters ? Is it the acquisition of presi- 
dential honors in 1852 that has bedazzled the fancy 
of the honorable Senator from New York, and 
prompted him to utter that calumnious and deeply 
dishonoring panegyric upon the famed Missionary 
of Temperance wliich has awakened in this hall 
so profound a sentiment of surprise, of indigna- 
tion, and of horror .' Did I regard Father Mathew 
as deserving any part of the commendation be- 
stowed upon him, in connection with the cause of 
abolition, by the honoralde Senator from New 
York, instead of recognizing him as a noble phi- 
lanthrojiist, 1 should feel cortipclled to class him 
with thieves, and robbers, and murderers, and mid- 



night incendiaries. Did 1 suppose that the honor- 
able Senator from New York had been duly author- 
ized to give expression to the sentiments of Father 
Mathew upon the question of slavery, I should 
regard it as insulting to this body to have his 
name even uttered in our hearing. I must suppose., 
until proof to the contrary shall be adduced, that 
the honorable Senator from New York, whether 
designedly or not I will not undertake to decide, 
has done serious injustice to a worthy and unof- 
fending personage, and that, in his fiery eageniess 
to advance a favorite but infamous cause, he has 
attempted to drag to his aid the influence and pop- 
ularity of a great and potential name, in a inanner 
that cannot fail to prove displeasing to all the dis- 
interested friends of the temperance reform to be 
found upon the habitable globe. I venture to pre- 
dict that the shrewd and sagacious Irish popula- 
tion of the country will infallibly detect this most 
bungling attempt to decoy them; and comprehend- 
ing the lofty motives which actuated the honorabls 
Senator from the Empire State in setting on foot 
this precious scheme of demagogical deception, 
they will not fail, in due season, to reward the 
author of it according to his intrinsic deserts. 

Sir, there was a classic saying in the olden time, 
which all of us doubtless remember: "Qt.iod ttligit, 
id ornavit." The conduct of the honorable Sen- 
ator from New York, and that of his abolition 
associates and allies, here and elsewhere, is ex- 
actly the reverse of this: whatever they touch they 
defile; contact with them and their accursed cause 
(politically speaking) is rank pollution ; their coun- 
sels are pregnant with destruction; the downfall of 
our free institutions is the natural and inevitable 
result of their malevolent devices. On this par- 
ticular occasion, the honorable Senator from New 
York, professing his desire to evince his personal 
respect for one who stands but-little in need of his 
super-serviceable praises, has signally discredited 
the subject of his laudations, and awakened more 
or less of prejudice in bosoms where, but for the 
officious zeal of which I am complaining, naught 
but sentiments of kind respect and generous sym- 
pathy would have found admittance. The hon- 
orable Senator will not be offended, I trust, if I 
state to him that he has, on this occasion, rather 
painfully awakened a forensic reminiscence of 
former years, which, but for him, would perhaps 
never have risen up in my memory again. 

I once witnessed a trial of two criminals upon 
a capital charge. They were defended somewhat 
unskillfully by a young and inexperienced attor- 
ney, who had spoken about an hour, with about 
j as much heat and animation, at least, as has bean 
exhibited by the honorable Senator from New 
York in the assertion of Father Mathew's claims 
to senatorial honors. The young advocate had 
gotten through with about half of Wxa speech; the 
evidence, so far ae one of the alleged malefactors 
! was concerned, had been di-scussed, and the case 
] of the associate culjiritwas aiiout to be presented. 
I The judge, who was a decidedly humane man, 
' and had been greatly agonized with the damning 
character of the deience set up for the accused, 
leaned forward fi-om the bench, and thus addressed 
i the unfatigued defender of persecuted innocence: 
! " Young man, you have already secured the con- 
viction of one of your unfortunate clients, and I 
admonish you, that if you have any wish that the 
other should be acquitted, you will decline utter- 



ing a single word in his vindication." Tlie young 
lawyer took the hint, and desisted, and his client 
escaped the gallows. It is to be hoped that Father 
Mathew will be lucky enough to avoid the de- 
struction with which he is threatened by the fatal 
advocacy of the Senator from New York, who, 
from the period of his noted contest with the State 
of Virginia upon the subject of the surrender of 
fugitive slaves, has been distinguished as an ultra 
abolition agitator, and an open and undisguised 
assailant of die most venerated guarantees of the 
Constitution. 

In conclusion, I will take the liberty of warning 
that Senator that a period has almost arrived when 
even his eloquent tongue will be stilled upon his 
favorite topic. The time is not far distant when 
even such a formally prepared, prosy, and well- 
conned speech as that which he uttered this morn- 
ing in our hearing will be but impatiently listened 
to, if listened to at all, by this august assembly; 
when the enlightened and patriotic people of this 
great Republic will indignantly denounce the noisy 
agents of faction who have so long disturbed the 
public repose by unseemly and profitless wran- 
giings, and command them to be silent, and silent 
forever, v;hilst the Constitution and its guarantees 
will ride triumphant over all obstacles which a 
perverse sophistry has raised up to obstruct the 
progress of twenty millions of people to a state 
of felicity, of power, and of grandeur never before 
attained by any civilized nation; when perfect 
justice will be seen to prevail throughout our bor- 
ders; when the absolute equalily of the sovereign 
States of this Confederacy shall be universally ac- 
knowledged; when the domestic institutions of all 
die States shall be made effectually secure against 
the malign assaults of all foes, whether open and 



direct, or covert and insidious; when the real 
enemies of the Constitution, as our fathers framed 
it, shall be universally recognized as the real 
enemies of the Union for which that Constitution 
has provided; when the good sense and sound 
patriotism of the North shall nobly concede to the 
South, her long-withheld rights, and the South in 
her turn shall punish the vile traitors within her 
own confines who have conspired for her over- 
throw, with undying infamy; and a day of re- 
splendent glory shall dawn upon our country, be- 
fore whose brightness all nations of earth shall 
stand in wondering admiration, and the page of 
history be adorned with such scenes of moral 
grandeur and social beatitude as have never been 
portrayed heretofore by human pen or pencil. 

Yes, sir, the day is not distant — it is even now 
at hand — when faction shall no longer be permitted 
to encumber the machinery of government; when 
a patient and forbearing people will submit no fur- 
ther to be burdened with all the enormous expen- 
ses of government without any of the benefits of 
actual legislation; when a few wicked and reckless 
demagogues in Congress will be no longer permit- 
ted to embroil our public councils with seditious 
declamation, and put the happiness of the whole 
republic in imminent peril, in order to earn for 
themselves a little dishonorable notoriety; and 
when the wretched champions of abolition and 
free soil siiall mourn in sackcloth and ashes over 
all the mischief which they have engendered, and 
seek in retirement and obscurity that immunity for 
offences perpetrated, and for still greater offences 
projected but counteracted, for which they will 
be indebted alone to the magnanimity of the 
people whom they have sought to betray and to 
ruin. 



DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH AUSTRIA. 

REMARKS 

OP 

HON. H. S. FOOTE, OF MISSISSIPPI, 

IN THE SENATE, JANUARY 4, 1850, 
On the Resolution of Mr. Cass to suspend Diplomatic Relations with Austria. 



Mr. FOOTE 'said: 

Mr. President: I do not propose to enter into 
the debate now in progress upon the resolution of 
the honorable Senator from Michigan, [Mr. Cass,] 
at least so far as the general merits of the resolution 
introduced by him are concerned. Approving 
heartily of almost all that has fallen from him on 
this occasion, and concurring fully with him in all 
the leading views which he has so forcibly stated, 
I should be entirely willing to risk the fate of the 
resolution upon the speech which has already been 
delivered in its support. At least, it cannot be 
necessary, at this stage of the debate, that anything 
further should be said in support of the resolution, 
either by its avowed or presumed friends, especially 
as allusions have been made by the honorable Sen- 
ator from Michigan to two honorable Senators over 
the way, [Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster,] which, 
it is to be hoped, will call forth from them such 
responses as will comport with the high character 
which they have heretofore acquired in the country, 
and serve in some degree also to renew in the 
recollections of their countrymen certain glorious 
scenes in our annals in which it was their good 
fortune to bear so distinguished a part. As a mem- 
ber of the Committee on Foreign Relations, to 
whom it is proposed to refer this resolution, I shall 
gladly avail myself of the sage counsels which may 
be offered upon the grave subject under considera- 
tion by more experienced Senators, whether asso- 
ciated with one or the other of the two great politi- 
cal parties into which the country is divided. 

My chief object in rising is to notice the remarks 
with which the Senate has been just favored by 
the honorable member from New York, who has 
been pleased to take it upon himself to complain 
that the Senator from Michigan has'avowed (though 
in mild and moderate language) his decided disap- 
probation of the precipitate departure of the indi- 
vidual nominated to the Austrian court; who has 
not waited, as it was clearly his duty to do, for the 
previous confirmation by this body of his appoint- 
ment abroad. The honorable Senator from New 
York says that he finds himself, by the conduct of 
ihe Senator from Michigan complained of, " ex- 
ceedingly embarrassed as the friend, the personal 
friend, the unwavering friend, the devoted friend 
of this foreign representative;" alleging at the same 
time that he has "documents in his possession to 
extenuate, and, as he believes, to remove the ac- 
cusation of f)rccipitate flight from before the Senate 
of the United States;" and yet, he continues, 
" these documents are of such a nature that, in 



justice to the domestic relations of that individual, 
he is not at liberty to give them to the world." 
Such are the precise words used by the honorable 
Senator, who, I venture to say, will not undertake 
to call in question my citation of them. Now, 
Mr. President, I must say to that honorable Sen- 
ator, to the Senate, and to the country, that I am 
exceedingly surprised at the language which he 
has presumed to hold in our hearing upon this 
delicate and important question. I will remind 
that Senator that the Constitution of the United 
States has provided that the President " shall nom- 
inate, and by and ivith the advice and consent of ike 
Senate shall appoint, ambassadors-and other public 
ministers," &c. Yes, sir, " by and with the advice 
and consentof the Senate" is this appointing power 
of the President to be exercised, and not otherwise; 
and yet the honorable Senator from New York 
undertakes to maintain that it is entirely proper 
for an individual who has been simply designated 
to a foreign mission by the Executive, and com- 
missioned during the recess of the Senate, and only 
a few days, too, before we were to re-assemble 
here for the purpose of either approving or dis- 
approv'ing such designation, and confirming or 
rejecting the nominations made to us, with hts 
commission and salary in his pocket, to fly from 
the country before he has allowed the Senate an 
opportunity of determining upon the fitness or un- 
fitness of his appointment. And, sir, the honorable 
Senator undertakes to maintain the propriety of 
such action on the part of his friend, not uponany 
ground of public policy, not because there was 
anything in our relations with Austria which mad« 
it imperiously necessary that he should go thus 
hastily upon the mission to which he has been 
preferred; but, sir, the justification which he sets 
up for his absent friend is based alone upon do- 
mestic considerations, of a nature so exceedingly 
delicate, as he assures us, that he does not feel at 
liberty to explain them at this time in our hearing, 
or to do more than refer to them with something of 
the mystical significance of the Pythian prophetess 
herself. 

Sir, this is extraordinary doctrine, and upheld 
in an extraordinary manner. 1 cannot believe, for 
one, I will not so cruelly wrong that high officer 
and his ofiicial advisers as to suppose, that tile 
President and his Cabinet have given their sanc- 
tion to this rash and indecent conduct of their dip- 
lomatic emissary to the court of Austria. It would 
not be easy to persuade me that the intention of 
Colonel Webb to leave the country thus suddenly 



was made known to the President of the United 
States at all anterior to his departure. The Presi- 
dent has too often professed, and I doubt not sin- 
cerely, his profound respect for the coordinate 
departments of the Government, and his unwilling- 
ness to encroach upon their constitutional powers 
and privileges, to allow him, with any appearance 
of consistency, to participate in so gross an insult 
as has been perpetrated in this instance upon the 
dignity of this body. So often have those now in 
power avowed their apprehension of all undue 
strengthening of the Executive department of the 
Government at the expense of the Legislative, so 
much dread have they heretofore avowed of the 
increase of what they have emphatically called 
" the one-man power" of our system, that it can- 
not be possible that this most grievous encroach- 
ment upon the authority of the Senate, this most 
flagrant insult upon its dignity, can either have 
originated with the President and his Cabinet ad- 
visers, or have been otherwise than decidedly con- 
demned by them. 

And yet, Mr. President, the manner in which 
the honorable Senator from New York habitually 
puts himself forward as the special defender of the 
Administration, the leadership for which in this 
Chamber he has, on all occasions, so authorita- 
tively assumed, might almost induce one to suspect 
that the language which he has held here to-day 
in defence of his editorial friend of the New York 
Courier and Enquirer may have been advised at 
the other end of the avenue, or may, at least, here- 
after be approved in that quarter, but for certain 
facts, familiar to us all, of a nature to awaken not 
a little suspicion that the honorable Senator from 
New York is not in fact so specially and exclu- 
sively authorized to represent the Administration 
in this body as he seems himself to suppose. 

It is not for me, sir, to become the regular de- 
fender of the President and his Cabinet against the 
assaults or blundering advocacy of their own pro- 
fessed friends; nor do I wish to be considered as 
intending on this occasion to render to them more 
than simple justice. Yet it is in my recollection, 
and I beg leave to remind honorable Senators of 
the fact, that early last spring, even a day or two 
before the inauguration scene of the 4th of IMarch, 
the honorable Senator from New York, according 
to his own account of the matter, came to this city, 
(whether by special invitation of the Executive or 
not, 1 do not know,) and kindly took charge of the 
interests of the incoming Administration in con- 
nection with a most delicateand important question 
then pending in Congress, and, if his own printed 
statement be true, so managed matters in the two 
wings of the Capitol, in thecourse of sometwelveor 
fifteen hours previous to theadjournment of thetwo 
Houses of the National Legislature, as to defeat 
the settlement of that territorial question which has 
put the Union in such serious jeopardy, and to cut 
off our fellow-citizens of California and New Mex- 
ico from that governmental protection and defence 
to which they were so clearly entitled at our hands. 
I do not assert, sir, that the honorable Senator was 
actually as efficient in this affair as he has himself 
claimed to have been. Indeed, I have always 
doubted whether his influence was very potentially 
exerted on the occasion referred to. Nor am I 
willing to take it for granted, upon any showing 
that has yet been made in the case, that the acts of 
the honorable Senator, as described by himself to 



have been performed, have ever received the formal 
sanction of the President. I will add, that my 
respect for the high officer just alluded to, person- 
ally, in spite of my political opposition to him, will 
not permit me to lend easy credence to the state- 
ments of an indiscreet friend, who, with a view to 
increase his own consequence in the public estima- 
tion, may possibly have claimed authority to rep- 
resent the opinions and wishes of the President and 
his Cabinet beyond that designed to be accorded 
to him. And, sir, it is chiefly with a view to res- 
cuing this Whig Administration from undeserved 
discredit, and for the purpose of saving them from 
being held responsible for the extraordinary lan- 
guage of the Senator from New York this morning, 
in connection with the mission to Vienna, that 1 
will take upon myself to go a little into the particu- 
lars of that noctural scene of the 3d of March last, 
in which the Senator from New York claims the 
honor of having figured so conspicuously. 

1 have said that the honorable Senator from New 
York arrived in Washington a day or two before 
the inauguration of the President. His advent had 
certainly been anticipated by us all; but I feel that 
I can safely assert that no one here expected him 
to participate very actively in the legislative pro- 
ceedings of Congress, before he should have been 
regularly qualified asa memberof this body, which 
could not constitutionally take place until the 4th 
of March had arrived. He reached this city, so 
far- as I know or have heard, without producing 
any very profound sensation, either among the res- 
ident population, the governmental functionaries, 
or casual visiters to the metropolis of the nation, 
of whom a vast number had already congregated. 
There was no special ringing of bells or firing of 
artillery to announce his approach; nor do I recol- 
lect that the editorial notices of his arrival, in the 
leading prints of this city, were such as to awaken 
any particular attention to the fact that a new Sen- 
ator from the Empire State had reached our midst, 
who would be at once appointed manager-general, 
on the part of the Executive not yet inaugurated, 
in and over the two houses of the National Legis- 
lature. At this period the memorable amendment 
to the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill had 
been introduced by the honorable Senator from 
Wisconsin, [Mr. Walker,] had passed this body 
after a fierce and long-protracted struggle, and was 
awaiting the sanction of the House of Representa- 
tives. The hope was confidently entertained, by 
all the true friends of the Union, that the adoption 
of this measure would forever settle the territorial 
question, and secure to the patriots of the Republic 
a signal and permanent triumph over the accursed 
myrmidons of faction. Nothing had been more 
clearly ascertained than the fact that this plan of 
settlement, brought forward by the honorable Sen- 
ator from Wisconsin, was the only plan the adop- 
tion of which could be probably secured. It was 
most clear to all minds, that if this plan should be 
defeated, the country would continue to be har- 
assed with the perilous controversy then in pro- 
gress upon the most exciting question ever agitated 
among us. It was equally obvious that no one 
could feel interested in preventing the settlement of 
thisquestion, except, perchance, some aspiring poli- 
tician, who, aiming to accomplish hisown advance- 
ment to high public honors by sectional strife rather 
than by intrinsic merit, might be inclined to throw 
impediments in the way of all schemes of fraternal 



6 



and fair arrangement. Certain it is tliat tlie amend- 
ment of the honorable Senator from Wisconsin, 
with a liberal confidence highly creditable to its 
framer, intrusted large additional power and pa- 
Uonage to a President in whose election he had 
not participated, but in whose good sense and pu- 
rity of heart all the supporters of that amendment 
upon this floor professed to have entire confidence. 
I believe I may add, without the hazard of contra- 
diction, that General Taylor had himself expressed 
a wish to his confidential friends that this scheme 
of settlement .should succeed. Under these cir- 
cumstances, the honorable Senator from New 
York, according to his own account of his achieve- 
ments, entered upon his brilliantcareer as manager- 
general. On the 29th of March last, he became 
the historian of his own exploits, as the author of 
a letter published in this city, in the columns of 
the National Intelligencer, in which l>e states that, 
"on the morning of the 3d of March, (the last day 
of the late session of Congress,) General Taylor, 
Mr. Clayton, the present Secretary of State, and 
Mr. Ewing, the Secretary of the Interior, severally 
called his" attention to the necessity of having 
some form of civil government for California es- 
tablished before Congress should adjourn." Yes, 
sir, these distinguished functionaries are asserted 
by the honorable Senator from New York to 
have "severalhj called his attention to the neces- 
sity of having a civil government for California 
established before Congress should adjourn." 
This, sir, is truly a most surprising statement. 
The two houses of Congress had been gravely 
considering this matter for months. Many of the 
sagest men in the Republic had been engaged right 
and day in maturing some scheme for the settle- 
ment' of this great territorial question. Whigs 
and Democrats seemed — in this body, at least — to 
some extent, to have concurred in supporting the 
plan of the Senator from Wisconsin. Some of the 
ablest and most experienced members of theWhig 
party to be found in the Republic were known to 
be then occupying seats in the two houses of Con- 
gress. The attractions of the anticipated inaugural 
scene had drawn together, in addition, a large 
number of the wisest and most patriotic citizens 
belonging to the nation. Instead of permitting 
the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin to 
become part of the law of the land, and thus closing 
the controversial strife which had been so long 
distracting the country — instead of urging upon 
his friends in the two houses of Congress to coop- 
erate efficiently and zealously in securing the con- 
summation of this noble scheme of pacification — 
instead of calling around him the wisest and 
weightiest men of his party, and soliciting their 
advice — the President and his Cabinet are described 
by the Senator from New York as throwing them- 
aeives at once upon his counsels, and submitting 
themselves in this grave conjuncture to his exclu- 
sive direction. I venture to pronounce this the 
most astounding instance of reckless confidence 
that ever has been recorded by historian, or been 
depictured by bard or novelist. The elder Pitt 
once said, " Confidence is a plant of slow growth 
in aged bosoms." In this instance a mushroom 
rapidity of growth is displayed, which 1 feel sure 
must prove surprising to all who did not suppose 
the honorable Senator from New York to labor un- 
derthc intluenceofaspecial hallucination in imagin- 
ing himself to have been trusted so exorbitantly. 



Well, sir, what did the honorable Senator from 
New York do when thus employed as the sole ne- 
gotiator of business so diflicult and momentous.'' 

I will endeavor to give you his own words, as 
contained in the letter already referred to, so far as 
my memory will serve me for the purpose. If I 
misstate the import of the letter, I hof)e to be cop- 
rected by the honorable Senator. This, then, is 
what he said: "I repaired to the Capitol in coin- 
f)any with Mr. Ewing. There I procured a copy 
of Mr. Walker's amendment, which I had not 
before read. I immediately prepared whatjl content- 
plated as an amendment to Mr. Walker's amend- 
ment, or as a substitute for it." Yes, sir, he int- 
medialely prepared his substitute. The subject was 
not new to him, as we all know, but the existing 
condition of things could not possibly have been 
known to him personally until his arrival in Wash- 
ington. He was cjuickly called into consultation, 
and his capacities as a manager at once jiut in re- 
quisition. He required no time for deliberation;', 
the operations of his intellect were as rapid as th& 
movements of electricity. There is really a most 
marvelous celerity in the action of his mind, and 
so modestly described by himself in this epistle; 
the flashes of divine intuition can scarcely indeed 
be imagined to be more instantaneous. "After- 
wards," he says, "I found Mr. Webster's pro- 
posed amendment, and I discovered it contained all 
the provisions I had contemplated, very tersely ex- 
pressed." Prodigious! He actually found that Mb. 
Webster's amendment contained all the provis- 
ions he had contemplated, and seems to have been 
not a little gratified that two great intellects (about 
the greatness of one of which there is certainly 
no doubt anywhere) should so happily have ha> 
monized. The only difierence between them ap- 
pears to have been, that what may have possibly 
cost the honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
several days and nights of anxious contemplation 
and painful scrutiny, was struck out at a single 
heat by the honorable Senator from the Empire 
State. It certainly must be looked upon as a for- 
tunate circumstance for the country that the amend- 
ment of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
found favor in the eyes of his illustrious conten> 
porary; and perhaps it may be soinewliat gratify- 
ing, too, to the pride of the last-mentioned Senator, 
(but I must be permitted to doubt this a little,) to 
know that his amendment has been honored with 
the special commendation of the honorable Senator 
from New York, both as to style and substance. 
He pronounced it to be very tersely expressed; that 
is to sa)', " neatly " expressed — " clear jcithout 
pomposity.^'' I regarded the fame of tiie honorable 
Senator from Massachusetts as a literary man ae 
quite well established before; no one who defers 
to the critical acumen of the honorable Senator 
from New York will hereafter doubt the compe- 
tency of the distinguished gerjtleman thus cono 
mended to draw up a short amendment in suitable 
parliamentary language. I hope 1 may be her-e 
indulged in a comparison without incurring the 
charge of profanity. When the Great Author of 
the Universe " in tlie beginning created the heavens 
and the earth," and had brought his goodly v/ork 
to a conclusion, he is rejiresented to have looked 
upon it, and to have pronounced it " very good." 
And so, in like manner, the honorable Senator 
from New York, glancing over the amendment of 
..the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, aud 



finding it to correspond in substance with his own, 
gravely pronounced it to be " very good," and pro- 
ceeded to act upon it without delay. " I took Mr. 
Webster's amendment," says he, " and, having 
shown it to Mr. E.ving, who left the whole subject 
to imj own judgment, I visited many members of 
the House of Representatives and urged the adop- 
tion of it! Mr. Vinton, chairman of the Commit- 
tee of Ways and Means, soon informed me that 
the committee would report the amendment, with 
some slight modifications, to which I did not ob- 
ject." " I spent," says he, " the residue of the 
day in urging the adoption of the amendment of 
the Committee of Ways and Means upon the 
members of the House." 

But his labors did not hereend, Mr. President- 
nothing like it. To be sure he had swept all ob- 
stacles before him in one house of Congress, but 
he had yet to encounter still more serious obstacles 
in the .Senate. Besides, the hour ofmidnight had 
arrived, and all the surrounding circumstances 
were strikingly unproy:gtious to renewed delibera- 
tions in this body. And yet there was one cir- 
cumstance — possibly quite unthought of at the 
time — not altogether unfavorable to the contem- 
plated scheme of operation. The members of the 
Senate might be found overv/earied with their 
severe legislative labors — some of the friends of 
the Walker amendment, and of course the ene- 
mies of the new one, might, at that late hour of 
the night, be perchance asleep or absent, and the 
dark deed which had been plotted might be accom- 
piished even alter the constitutional term of legisla- 
tion had expired. Note, Mr. President, if you 
please — and I call upon the country to observe — 
that the honorable Senator from the Empire Slate 
had never then occupied a seat in either house of 
Congress, and could not be inducted into the seat 
in this Hall, then adorned by an acconiplished gen- 
tleman, now no longer among us, until the suc- 
ceeding Monday. And yet he did not hesitate to 
take upon himself the performance of legislative 
functions, more ample in their scope and niore 
difficult in their execution than any American 
statesman had ever before thought of assuming. 
Having been formally put in charge of this matter 
in the manner described, and the whole ^^ modus 
o])erandi" having been left to his judgment, when 
his labors had terminated in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, he glided most dispatchfuUy into the 
Hall of the Senate, and there, says he, " I exerted 
myself to procure the assent of the Seiuue to the 
amendment, and I insisted that no different pro- 
vision ought to pass. I continued my efforts until 
the Senate decided to disagree to the amendment 
of the Committee of Ways and Means of the 
House. It is well known that the v/hole design of 
a government for California failed by reason of that 
disagreement." 

Such are the statements of the extraordinary 
letter published in the National Intelligencer, on 
V(\e 29th of March last, over the signature of the 
honorable Senator from the Empire Slate, now 
present. And now, Mr. President, is not this a 
wonderful episile? Does it not abound in surpris- 
iijg statements!' Does it not describe most re- 
markable achievements upon the Parliamentary 
arena? Is not this letter destined to awaken the 
astonishment of all posterity.' There i.« noihiiig, 
I think, so strikiiig in all the pages of history, 
ancientand modern, from Herodotus down to Mac- 



aulay, as these exploits of the honorable Senator 
from New York, pr recorded by himself. I have 
several times seen noted equestrians of the circus 
perform high feats of horsemanship that astonished 
all beholders. I have seen Harlequin himserr 
astride of two horses at the same time, riding 
around the ring with an affected clownishness of 
manner, fitted to awaken among the uninitiated 
serious alarm for his safety, and yet presently de- 
scending again to earth unhurt and even exultant^; 
but never did I hear before of a single individual, 
however skilled in the mysteries of law-making, 
successfully taking charge of two houses of a Na- 
tional Legislature, representing twenty millions of 
people, and so controlling the great and complex 
machinery of Pnrliamentary proceeding as to malre 
every part of it perform its appropriate functions, 
strictly according to order, in both departments, 
without himself enjoying at the time the privileges 
of membership in either of them, or even possess- 
ino- a right to raise his voice in debate. Indeed, in 
thts instance it seems that the experiment attempt- 
ed did, in point of fact, ultimately fail, as the sub- 
stituted amendment of the House was not ratified 
by the Senate. And yet must the eii'orts of the 
honorable Senator from Nev^ York be regarded as 
not altogether successless, since he aided so ef- 
ficiendy in defeatins: the amendment of the honor- 
able Senator from Wisconsin, and thus managed 
to keep the question of slavery in the Territories 
open, so as to secure to himself some faint pros- 
pect of Presidential honors in fvluro by means of 
its fierce agitation in the free States of the North. 

And now, speaking of the Presidency, let m 
return for a moment to the remarks of the honor- 
able Senator to which I am now replying. He 
calls himself "the personal friend— the unwaver- 
ing friend" — [Mr. Dodgk, of Iowa, from his seat, 
" devoted "]-^yes, sir, "the devoted friend" of 
General James Watson Webb, editor of the New 
York Courier and Enquirer. Why, Mr. Presi- 
dent, how is this? How are we to understand the 
honorable Senator? I am assured by one whom I 
presume to be correctly informed, that until a very 
recent period indeed, the relations between the 
honorable Senator from New York and the subject 
of his present commendations were by no means 
of an amicable character! 1 am told that i'ew 
presses in the Union have generally displayed 
more hostility to the honorable Senator from New 
York than that of the Courier and Enquirer. 
Lately, to be sure, it seems to have changed its 
tone considerably; and, I am told, it has actually 
ventured to suggest the honorable Senator from 
New York as the most suitable person to receive 
the next Whig nomination for the Presidency. 
Now, through the little window I have just opened, 
it may be that some rays of light will come in to 
irradiate the darkne.*s heretofore enshrouding the 
subject of present inquiry. 1 can, at any rate, now 
see pretty plainly how it is that the honorabte 
Senator from New York can be, and ought to be, 
the friend of the commissioned but not yet con- 
firmed emisfsary to Vienna. I can understarTtl not 
' only how he might well be his friend, but also 
how his heart might pulsate with grateful emntiouB 
1 for kindness exercised and partiality displayed. 
But the word imwavering is still incompreliensiblo, 
as the amity between them is of too recent origin 
to have been yet severely tested, ioid may be des- 
tined to grow extinct before tlie fruit of honor 



8 



shall have been gathered from the tree of political 
promise. It may be that this frieiuiship^— so sud- 
den, so tender, eo devoted— is fated to evaporate 
whensoever our minister to Vienna shall have re- 
turned to his editorial chair in New York, and, 
under the influence of some new fantasy, shall 
have sus^gesled the name of some other Presiden- 
tial candidate in preference to that of the honora- 
ble Senator from tiie Empire State. I should re- 
gret this extremely, sir; a mutual afi ction like 
that under review, so romantically springing up 
in two young hearts, within whose recesses the 
cold principles of political and pecuniary calcula- 
tion have never found entrance, should, for the 
honor of human natiire, be preserved in all its ori- 
ginal freshness and fervor, until eager appetite 
shall be at last swallowed up in measureless frui- 
tion. 

There is one view of this matter, Mr. President, 
that remains yet to be stated. The honorable 
Senator from New York tells us that he has docu- 
ments in his possession of a nature to extenuate, 
if not entirely free ft-om censure, his friend, between 
whom and himself an ocean now rolls its billows, 
but for whom he still cherishes a devotion as in- 
tense as that which he felt before time and space 
had separated them so remotely; but he says that 
these documents "are of such a nature that, in 
justice to the domestic relations of that individual, 
tie is not at liberty to give them to the world." 
Well, sir, I regret very deeply, then, that he allu- 
ded to these documents at all. I regret it, sir, for 
the sake of the individual cliiefly interested, whose 
character, and perhaps that of a portion of his 
family, may suffer serious detriment from the 
superserviceable zeal of his champion on this floor. 
If this topic had not been introduced, we might 
have supposed that some public reasons, not proper 
to be disclosed, connected with our diplomatic re- 
lations with Austria, had instigated the precipitate 
flight of this renowned Meiniury of the press across 
the stormy ocean. Now, through the indiscretion 
of his most loving advocate, we know that no such 
public reasons have operated, and we know in 
addition that there are some reasons connected 



with the domestic relations of this personage which 
have made it necessary that he should quit his na- 
tive country in such ungraceful haste. Curiosity 
will spring up in all minds now, sir, as to the 
exact nature of these domestic reasons ; some will 
conjecture them to be of one character, some of 
another. The newspapers of the country will take 
up the inviting theme, and edify their resjiective 
readers with various shrewd conjectures as to the 
cause of our minister's exodus. The letter-writers, 
a most prying, ingenious, and active class, will 
manage to cast still more and more confusion over 
the ample field of conjecture. Old men will talk 
wisely over the supposed domestic distresses of 
the unhappy Webb. Young men will jest sport- 
ively, and with all the ludicrous aggravations 
which a mischievous vivacity can engender. The 
whole country, sir, will be infalliby occupied for a 
month or two to come in considering the overpow^ 
ering domestic woes which have come upon the 
once happy editor of the Courier and Enquirer of 
New York; and without soipie speedy explanation 
of the mystery now existing, the world at large 
will come to the conclusion, in less than thre€ 
months, that General James Watson Webb, our 
nominated minister to Vieima, is the most unhap- 
py man in everything touching his domestic con- 
cerns to be found in all Christendom. The honor- 
able Senator from New York has certainly been 
particularly unfortunate of late. It was but the 
other day that he was very near ruining the fair 
fame, and destroying the well-earned popularity of 
the illustrious champion of temperance, the Rev- 
erend Theobald iVUrfiew, by fixing upon him the 
odium of abolition. Now, he has succeeded in eP> 
fectualiy disgracing his own'special friend and edi» 
torial advocate by adding to the discredit of ofiicia! 
delinquency the suspicion of domestic infelicity. 
Well might the unfortunate gentleman, who is 
now, perhaps, drinking Tokay at Austrian tables, 
or smiling joyously beneath the glances of impe- 
rial condescension, exclaim, with all the emphasis 
appropriate to persecuted innocence, " Save me 
from my friends, and I'll take care of my ene- 
mies." 



Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 



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